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Monday, June 11, 2012

Monday Review by Margie: The Descendants (2011)

Margie Cracken is a guest blogger for StrangeCultureBlog.com, her style & taste are not typical to the Film Blog Community. You can read more about Margie here.

George Clooney, The Descendants

After last week's horrible film recommendation by the video store guy, I made my own choice. The video guy wasn't there, so I couldn't complain to him directly, but I let his manager know.

So many of my friends think George Clooney is just something else, so I rented The Descendants.

I was a little surprised that the first lines of the film have George's character whining about how Hawaii isn't that special, something to the effect that his friends on the mainland think all he does is drink Mai Tais and live in a state of permanent vacation.

I thought, well this guy must have a rough life. Until you quickly find out that his rough life isn't so rough at all. He's a well to do lawyer, has a nice house, and has nothing to complain about, other than things that are his own fault.

I've seen people who live in awful cities, like my friend Carol who lives in this awful part of Indiana. Believe me, this George Clooney guy has nothing to complain about compared to Carol.

Where Carol lives it's gray and humid, and believe me there are no swimming pools in the backyard for the kids to jump into. There's no ocean, and sure people there get sick and have their own problems in Hawaii, but somehow Carol just seems to have problem after problem. First her youngest kid got sick, her husband checked out when he lost his job, and then her daughter starting dating this awful fellow with ear piercings, and all the time, Carol's trying to figure out how to pay the rent to live in such an awful place. She though she's sell jams, but you have to make a lot of jam to pay the rent.

If there's one thing that seemed pretty clear in this movie is that George Clooney's character starts complaining at the beginning and the complaining doesn't stop. Is it any surprise that his own children are so prone to bellyache about this, that and everything else under the sun.

In fact, that Alex girl really got on my nerve with all of her complaining and attention grabbing stunts she tried to pull. And that younger girl, poor thing, her life is already a mess at eleven. But I promise you, that has nothing to do with living in Hawaii, that has to do with bad parenting, can't say that the coma mom situation even makes a different, she's in a rough spot. That's for certain.

And talk about a family reunion when all those people get together to decide what to do with the family land. If the first lesson of this film is that whiny parents will raise whiny children, the second lesson is that kids of any age seem to never stop asking for money from their parents, even after they're gone.

I must admit, I was pleased that George Clooney decided to keep the land, but just wait until he passes away, those kids of his will sell that land in a heartbeat. Sure George Clooney may be a lawyer, but I can tell you those girls won't make it, not with all their grumbling and poor decision making.

Now that I think about it, speaking of Carol, her kids certainly would try to sell off the family house if it was worth anything when Carol and her husband die, but there won't be money when all that happens, I can tell you that. Poor, Carol. Life has certainly handed her a bad deck of cards, and now that's real tragedy. This movie on the other hand captures a pathetic self-induced tragedy of this absent dad, a cheating wife, and spoiled fussy children.

As for Hawaii, Hawaii seems beautiful and I'd love to go there some day. I can't accept George Clooney's negative sentiment about a place just because his life is so miserable. That's pea-brained thinking there.

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